All content pages and posts that are based on the original content of the ‘The Guide to Responsible Tourism in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam’ are tagged “bookcontent”. They were prepared by the book’s authors Guy Marris, Nick Ray, and Bernie Rosenbloom, and Editor Ken Scott.
Guy Marris
Laos author, Guy Marris, from New Zealand, arrived in Laos in 1997 with New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad to work in Xe Piane National Protected Area. He has spent the last 10 years in Southeast Asia working in various protected areas throughout Laos and Cambodia as an advisor in conservation management and ecotourism development. More recently he has assisted both the Nam Ha National Protected Area in Laos and Virachey National Park in Cambodia with the development of community-based ecotourism programmes. Prior to that Guy worked as an officer with the New Zealand Wildlife Service and then as a director-cameraman on natural history documentaries. Guy is presently in Mozambique assisting in the management of Niassa National Reserve with Fauna and Flora International. He can be contacted at: guymarris@yahoo.com.
Nick Ray
After university, Nick Ray, a Londoner, combined writing and tour leading in countries as diverse as Vietnam and Morocco. He hooked up with Lonely Planet in 1998 and has worked on more than 20 titles over the following years. Cambodia is his backyard and he has worked on several editions of the Cambodia guide, as well as Southeast Asia on a shoestring and Cycling Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia. Nick also writes articles for leading magazines and newspapers, including The Sunday Times and Wanderlust. He is often a location scout and manager of film and TV projects. He often takes on assignments for the BBC, Discovery and National Geographic channels. He currently lives in Phnom Penh, but is just as likely to be found in Siem Reap, Luang Prabang or Hoi An, three of his favourite places in the region. nickjray@yahoo.co.uk
Bernie Rosenbloom
Vietnam author, Bernie Rosenbloom, moved to Southeast Asia in 1992 as a freelance writer. The New York native specializes in travel and tourism subjects in Thailand and the Greater Mekong Subregion. He has written and edited for clients such as Thai Airways’ Royal Orchid Holidays, the Pacific Asia Travel Association, Mekong Tourism Office, Best Western Asia, Lookeast magazine, Asia Satellite TV, PATA Compass magazine and Travel Daily Asia. Bernie resides in Vientiane with his Lao wife and two daughters. He can be contacted at: bernie.rosenbloom@gmail.com.
Ken Scott
Ken Scott runs Bangkok-based ScottAsia Communications which specialises in PR and communications services to travel-related organisations in Thailand and the Mekong region. Ken, a former journalist, guide book author and Director-Communications at the Pacific Asia Travel Association head office in Bangkok, has been living in Thailand and writing about the region since 1986. ken@ScottAsia.net.
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The completed Mekong Tourism Development Project (MTDP), instigator of ‘The Guide to Responsible Tourism in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam’, promoted development of the tourism sector in the lower Mekong River basin countries – Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – through infrastructure improvements, community and private sector participation, and sub-regional cooperation.
The Project focused on four areas: tourism-related infrastructure improvements; poverty alleviation through community-based tourism development; sub-regional cooperation for sustainable tourism; and implementation assistance and institutional strengthening.
‘The Guide’, published by the Mekong Tourism Development Project as part of its sustainable tourism efforts, was made possible with funding from the Ministry of Tourism, Cambodia; the Lao National Tourism Administration; the Vietnam Ministry of Tourism; and loans to those destinations from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
About the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO)
The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) was charged with distributing the guidebook.
Established in early 2006, the MTCO, formerly known as the Agency for Coordinating Mekong Tourism Activities (AMTA), is a collaborative effort between the seven GMS destinations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the two China PRC provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi.
Its mission is two-fold: a) to develop and promote the GMS as a single tourism destination, offering a diversity of good quality and high-yielding sub-regional products that help to distribute the benefits of tourism more widely, and b) to support and coordinate GMS member countries in the implementation of projects identified and committed to under the GMS Tourism Strategy.
In March 2009, the USAID’s ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project offered to fund and develop this website in order for responsible travelers to more easily access the content and to give responsible GMS tourism stakeholders a chance to be featured.
Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO)
5th Flr. Office of Tourism Development, Ministry of Tourism & Sports
154 Rama 1 Road, National Stadium, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Tel: (66-2) 612-4150/1.
Fax: (66-2) 612-4152.
E-mail: info@mekongtourism.org (general enquiries)
E-mail: content@mekongtourism.org (content-related enquiries/submissions)
Web: www.mekongtourism.org
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Angkor by night
Cambodia is located in the heart of Southeast Asia. The country shares borders to the north and west with Thailand, to the northeast with Laos and to the east with Vietnam. The south of the country has a long and beautiful coastline on the Gulf of Thailand.
Cambodia covers an area of 181,035 sq km, which is about half the size of Germany. Water is a dominant feature of the Cambodian landscape and the mighty Mekong River cuts through the country from north to south. Cambodia is also home to the Tonle Sap (Great Lake), Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake and a rich source of fish.
There are three main mountainous regions in the country. The Elephant and Cardamom Mountains are in the southwest, the Dangkrek Mountains form the northern border with Thailand, and the Eastern Highlands rise towards the Laotian and Vietnamese borders.
Climate
Some Cambodians joke that the country has three seasons: hot, hotter and hottest. There is some truth to this, as Cambodia does have three main seasons: the wet season which usually starts in May or June and continues until September or October; the windy season which starts in November and continues through January; and the dry hot season which starts in February and lasts until May. Even during the wet season, it rarely rains all day. Most downpours come in the afternoon and, even then, only sporadically.
The sun sets over a former empire
Nature
About one quarter of Cambodia is made up of protected areas and national parks. Four national parks regularly draw visitors for their combination of natural attractions and activities: vast Virachey, in the far northeast, spanning Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces; Kirirom, just off the road to Sihanoukville, famous for its pine forests; Ream, a maritime park near Sihanoukville, with idyllic tropical beaches; and beautiful Bokor, a former French hill station near Kampot. The Cardamom Mountain range now includes the biggest protected area in Cambodia and has a lot of potential for ecotourism activities. Some environmentalists contend that Cambodia’s may have a biodiversity of species as rich as any in Asia. There has been little study of the country’s flora and fauna due to the long years of conflict.
Bokor national park
The country’s large mammals include tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, wild cows and deer, although precise numbers are uncertain. The many bird species in the country include cormorants, cranes, kingfishers and pelicans. Keen birders can see a number of very rare water birds in Cambodia. Popular places include the Prek Toal Bird Sanctuary, which is home to rare water birds such as lesser and greater adjutants, milky storks and spot-billed pelicans, as well as Ang Trapeng Thmor in Banteay Meanchey province, home to the sarus crane.
The Mekong is second only to the Amazon in fish biodiversity and provides a home for one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, the three metre long giant catfish. The rare freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin also inhabits stretches of the Mekong north of Kratie.
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The Mekong culminates in Vietnam
Vietnam’s 3,260-km South China Sea coastline defines the Mekong Sub-region’s northeast perimeter. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest and Cambodia to the southwest. Vietnam covers 329,560 sq km, with mountains and hills in the north and east dominating three-quarters of the landscape.
The fertile Mekong Delta in the south accounts for over 10% of the country’s area and close to 20% of its coastline. The delta is where the final 200 km of Mekong River breaks up into the Cuu Long, or Nine Dragons.
The country is divided into five distinct geographic regions. The mountains of Viet Boc stretch from the Red River to the Gulf of Tonkin in the northeast, and the northwest mountains run from the Chinese border to Lao PDR. The Annamite Mountain Range forms Vietnam’s backbone in the central region, beaches trim the east and the Mekong Delta characterises the south.
Climate Vietnam’s climate ranges from temperate in the north to tropical in the south. The four seasons are evident in the far north where winter temperatures can dramatically drop during the night, though most of the region is split between a cool winter (November to April) and a hot summer (May to October). The southern climate is similar to that of other Southeast Asian countries: cool and dry from November to January, hot and dry from February to May and hot and rainy from June to October with an occasional typhoon.
A never-ending task, and the backbone of the country
Nature Vietnam is dedicated to preserving its vast natural resources, boasting well over 80 national parks and protected areas throughout the country. The most famous is Halong Bay in the north with thousands of oddly-shaped limestone island outcrops filled with caves. Just south of Hanoi is Cuc Phuong National Park, home to over 97 mammal species, including the endangered langur, and 300 species of birds.
Vietnam’s largest national park, Yokdon, covers 1,155 sq km of relatively flat land, and was founded in 1991 to protect a rare patch of lowland dipterocarp forest with 464 species of flora and scores of mammal, reptile, bird, and fish species including 17 listed as endangered.
Among Vietnam’s critically endangered mammals are the Cat Ba Island golden-headed langur, Javan rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros and the white-rumped black lemur. Endangered Asian elephants, tigers, otter civets and parti-coloured flying squirrels have also been spotted.
Vietnam possesses a diversity of wetland habitats including large estuarine and delta systems with extensive mangrove swamps and tidal mudflats. This habitat and others in Vietnam are home to approximately 870 bird species, which make up 10% of the world’s species. The Dalat Plateau is one of the five endemic bird areas (EBAs) in Vietnam identified by BirdLife International.
This mixture of coniferous, mountain evergreen and secondary forest is the exclusive habitat of collared laughing thrushes, grey-crowned crocias and Vietnamese green finches. Visitors to Cat Tien National Park can spot wide-spread birds such as red-breasted parakeets, vernal hanging parrots, spotted and red-collared doves, drongo cuckoos and Oriental pied hornbills.
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Activity: Vietnam Quilts (now also named: Mekong-Quilts)
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap
Tip: Take a magazine or some pictures along if you’d like a made-to-order quilt
By purchasing a handmade cotton quilt you help support rural Khmer and Vietnamese women. Regular income from quilting allows them to stay in their village with their children and dependents.
Training and reliable income
The experience: Belgian-French NGO, Mekong Plus, has turned quilting circles into a way to employ groups of rural Cambodian and Vietnamese women while putting the profits directly back in their communities. Though visitors to Mekong-Quilts four shops in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap may only see the high-quality end products, they know the price tag is providing jobs and putting children through school.
Truong Thi Diem Thanh founded Vietnam Quilts in 2001, and began employing women from Mekong Delta villages to stitch together quilts and accessories for sale in HCM City. They work in groups under leaders, who train new members and guarantee the quality of the products and their timely delivery.
Truong Thi Diem Thanh founded Vietnam Quilts in 2001, and began employing women from Mekong Delta villages to stitch together quilts and accessories for sale in HCM City. They work in groups under leaders, who train new members and guarantee the quality of the products and their timely delivery.
Cotton quilt maker
How it helps: Mekong-Quilts provides a regular income to women in rural Cambodia and Vietnam, enabling them to remain in their communities and care for their children. The quilters receive a fair income, employment benefits, training and a safe and comfortable work environment.
The greater community also benefits from the project. In 2006 Vietnam Quilts turned a profit for the first time. Hundreds of scholarships and microcredits have been given to the same communities every year since. For a 100$ buy at one of the shops, Mekong-Quilts is able to add one more scholarship for the poorest children.
The success of the Mekong-Quilts project led to the opening of more shops, it employs today a total of 200 women full time.
Location and contact information
Mekong-Quilts
Location and contact information
Mekong-Quilts
Ho Chi Minh City
64 Ngo Duc Ke, D1, HCMC, Vietnam
Tel: (+84) (0) 8 39 14 21 19
E-mail: vietnam-quilts@hcm.fpt.vn
Open every day from 0900-1900
Hanoi
13 Hàng Bạc, Hoàn Kiêm.
Tel.: +84(0)4 73 06 36 82
vietnam.quilts.hn@gmail.com
Open every day from 0900-2000
Phnom Penh
49 street 240
Tel.: +855(0)23 219 607
mekong.quilts.pp@gmail.com
Open every day from 0900-1900
SIEM REAP: 5 Sivutha bdmekong.
quilts.sr@gmail.com
Tel.: +855(0)63 964 498
Open every day from 1500-2300
Web: www.mekong-quilts.org
Map: Marker identifies Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi; not where the shop is exactly …
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Activity name: The Gibbon Experience
Location: Bokeo Nature Reserve
Tip: This is a deep forest experience, not to be taken lightly
Sleep in canopy tree houses alongside black gibbons.
A Lar gibbon at home
The experience: The local guides from the Gibbon Experience will take you where no one else can — into the secretive world of the endangered black gibbon. For two days you can live in the tree tops of the Bokeo Nature Reserve and fly through the canopy on a network of ‘zip’ lines, an aerial highway that allows you to explore the gibbons’ home while giving you a unique opportunity to meet this beautiful and rare primate face to face.
Spacious tree houses with semi-private bedrooms and open fire kitchens provide the accommodation and comfortable ‘hides’ from which to observe wildlife in the forest canopy. Bird and insect life abound and at night the forest comes alive with the scuffling noises and calls of its nocturnal residents.
If you are lucky at night you might see the bizarre, wide-eyed slow loris, another rare primate that shares the forest with the gibbons. Below on the forest floor there are signs of sun bears, deer, wild pigs and, occasionally, of tiger and elephant as they pass through the reserve.
To sleep in the forest canopy and wake to the haunting calls of the gibbons and the dawn chorus of birdsong is surely one of the highlights of the Gibbon Experience. Visitors can choose between a two-day trip into the canopy with the freedom to explore the forest on foot or a three-day trek through the reserve to a remote tree house perched above a waterfall complete with a swimming hole and sunset views over the distant valleys.
Slow loris
How it helps: The Gibbon Experience is the vision of Animo, a conservation-based ecotourism company that seeks to conserve the forests and wildlife of Laos in a way which can be sustained by the local people themselves. The surrounding communities were involved in the design and construction of the tree houses and network of zip lines. With the approval of the provincial government of Bokeo, they have established the 123,000-hectare Bokeo Nature Reserve. The income from ecotourism is used directly for paying the monthly salaries of a team of forest guards to patrol the reserve and monitor its wildlife and for employing local people as guides and full-time staff. The Gibbon Experience works closely with the local communities to manage the reserve for conservation and ecotourism and is now beginning a new venture to rehabilitate neglected and ‘jobless’, domesticated elephants through employing them in the forest patrolling programme.
Contact information and booking
You can make a booking for the Gibbon Experience by:
Tel: (+856) [0] 84 212021
E-mail: experience@gibbonx.org
Or visit the Animal office in Houay Xai town in Bokeo Province, located between the BAP guesthouse and Riverview Restaurant.
Web: www.gibbonx.org
Map: Marker indicates Bokeo Province not the Animal office in Houay Xai …
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Activity: KOTO Restaurant
Location: Hanoi
Tip: Order a mix of Vietnamese and western cuisine and give them constructive feedback
This increasingly popular restaurant pulls street children from the poverty cycle to work on the staff and graduate into higher-level positions.
The chef and his trainees
The experience:Tourists can discover a dining experience that is delivered with a smile from young people, who have been empowered to change their lives, at KOTO restaurant. KOTO stands for “Know One Teach One”. All the restaurant’s trainees come from disadvantaged backgrounds. KOTO teaches them how to prepare and serve a blend of western and Vietnamese dishes and French-inspired pastries at the restaurant located directly opposite the Temple of Literature and just a five-minute taxi drive from Hanoi’s old quarter.
KOTO got its start in 1999 when Jimmy Pham, an Australian-Vietnamese tour guide, was overwhelmed by the vast number of street children he met in Hanoi. He decided to do something about it, and with funds borrowed from his mother, Jimmy opened a small sandwich shop to train and give jobs to the street kids he had befriended. Word quickly spread, and the sandwich shop became swamped with both patrons and potential trainees. This overwhelming response prompted Jimmy to enlist the help of Australian chef Tracey Lister to set up the first KOTO restaurant in 2000.
Building on its success, KOTO sought a larger and more modern restaurant to serve its growing clientele while providing training opportunities for more street children. In 2007, KOTO took over the building next door at 59 Van Mieu and opened its new restaurant.
As at the old establishment, diners receive “great food and service for a great cause”, but with added features. Couples can enjoy a candlelit dinner on the roof terrace, and the new bar presents a range of classic cocktails. Ms Ha, one of KOTO’s first graduates, offers group cooking classes in which participants learn the secrets behind Vietnamese street food while getting the chance to meet the current crop of trainees.
Good employment prospects after training
How it helps: KOTO targets extremely disadvantaged 16-to-22-year-olds. By building on the basic schooling these young people had, KOTO guides them through an internationally recognised hospitality course, at the end of which they are qualified to work in the hospitality industry. During the 18-month course, students are taught English, sex education, conflict management, financial and other career skills. Trainees are also provided with housing, medical checkups and insurance as well as a training allowance. so they can send money back to their families.
KOTO has a 100% success rate in placing graduates in meaningful hospitality jobs.
Koto contributes to the conservation of Vietnam’s cultural heritage by teaching its students how to cook traditional dishes such as Bun Cha and Bun Bo Nam Bo, which are served alongside the western offerings
Location and contact information
KOTO
59 Van Mieu St, Dong Da District, Hanoi
(opposite the Temple of Literature)
Tel: (84) [0] 4 847 3492
Fax: (84) [0] 4 843 3840
E-mail: dao@koto.netnam.vn, customerservice_koto@netnam.vn
Web: www.koto.com.au
Open 0700-2300 daily (closes 1700 Mondays)
Map: Marker indicates Hanoi International Airport not where the KOTO is exactly …
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Activity: Haivenu
Location: Hanoi and Northern Vietnam
Tip: Be ready to rough it
Two-week expeditions take tourists, who are willing to do without comforts, for a memorable experience to seldom-visited ethnic minority villages.
A Haivenu ethnic girl
The experience: For visitors willing to take that extra step to experience ethnic minority villages and immerse themselves in their culture, Haivenu veers away from the usual tourist routes and into the thick of Vietnam.
Among its tailor-made packages, Haivenu presents what it calls “Unusual Tours” that aren’t for “softies”. The adventurous trade in their beds for mats on the floor in communal rooms and swap conventional bathrooms for water-bucket showers and al fresco toilets that are holes in the ground. However, there is plenty of rice wine to smooth over the lack of comforts and an assortment of interesting local dishes to try along the way.
To really get your hands dirty, Haivenu offers a two-week Hiking and Helping tour. Adventurers can start with three days in the northeast mountains around Sapa, staying in villages, working in the fields, doing domestic chores and joining in traditional games. After a day off in Hanoi, the expedition moves 160 km south to Mai Chau and the entry to Pu Luong, a thickly forested valley wedged between limestone karsts. A sampan sails away from the somewhat commercialised Mai Chau, and then it is four days of hiking to small hamlets with different ethnic groups. After another breather in Hanoi, the journey ends with a more typical holiday in Hoi An and its nearby beach.
Easier trips, such as Hue, also available
The Path Least Trodden is another two-week tour that can kick off with the Pu Luong leg before moving to the Central Highlands near Cambodia for six days with various ethnic minorities. The excursion stops in tiny villages like Pleiku, Kon Tum and Buon Ma Thuot and visits Bahnar rong houses and Jarai funeral houses adorned with humorous and risqué wooden carvings. Nights are spent in rong, stilt and long houses, while days go by with easy treks, a lake crossing in a dugout canoe and a raft trip down a lazy river. After a break in Ho Chi Minh City, the journey winds up on Con Dao Island, 140 km off the coast of southern Vietnam.
Shorter tours are also available for “softies”, but the more visitors are willing to walk away from modern comforts, the closer they’ll get to the various cultures. Each tour group is guided by a Personal Tour Operator who remains with the customers to the very end.
How it helps: Haivenu is a wholly-owned Vietnamese company, and apart from one foreign consultant, all Haivenu’s employees and guides are locals, who receive a good basic salary and enjoy a profit-sharing scheme. It also hires local freelance guides with experience and knowledge of cultural traditions, and who can explain the cultural heritage of the people and places visited.
The company unveiled its responsible tourism policy in 2004 after a series of workshops involving every member of staff. The result is assistance for several small environmental, cultural, conservation and poverty alleviation programmes.
Haivenu works with the Cat Bo Langur Project, which is committed to protecting the 59 known surviving langurs of this species on Cat Bo Island in Ha Long Bay. The company has also partnered with Flora and Fauna International (FFI) in two remote forested patches in the northern Vietnam’s mountains to protect populations of Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys and Cao Vit gibbons.
Haivenu is further assisting FFI in Mai Chau’s communal initiative started by villagers, who set up their own homestay arrangement, which became quite commercialised. The current project is focussing on sustainable development that conserves the environment and the local culture.
Over the years, the company has built strong links with craftspeople, artists, singers and musicians who are maintaining threatened traditions, and offers tourists the opportunity to meet them. It is also involved in a large-scale project aimed at building the capacity of poor farmers in remote areas of 14 provinces.
Haivenu'slinks with craftspeople sustain older traditions such as puppet making
Wherever possible, Haivenu contracts indigenous suppliers and assists them in improving the quality of their services. It has introduced a scheme for young entrepreneurs with relevant skills to work on a contract basis while participating in Haivenu’s training programme. They then receive assistance in registering and setting up their own businesses, while continuing to be contracted by Haivenu.
Along with its range of tour ideas covering interests from heritage sites to veteran’s tours, a comprehensive database with the culture and traditions of Vietnam and the rest of Indochina is provided on Haivenu’s website. The site also provides information on the company’s responsible tourism policy and the projects in which it is engaged.
Contact and booking information
Haivenu Co
Mr Dong Minh Tuan, Deputy Director
12 Nguyen Trung Truc Street, Ba Dinh District
Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: (84) [0] 4 927 2917
Fax: (84) [0] 4 927 2916
E-mail: tuan@haivenu-vietnam.com
Web: www.haivenu-vietnam.com
Map: Marker indicates Hanoi not where Haivenu is exactly …
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Activity: Connections Vietnam
Location: Ho Chi Minh City
Tip: Don’t dumb down your English when talking to the students
See the city and socialise with students. Visit a home and learn to cook local foods. Socialise and take part in an interactive cultural seminar.
Try learning some Vietnamese
The experience: For travellers to Ho Chi Minh City who are seeking to get deeper under the city’s skin, Connections Vietnam offers four cultural tourism services that present a closer look. Each involves local people, especially students who are looking to practice their English skills. It also brings locals in closer contact with foreign visitors,
The ‘Meet’ programme matches tourists with students from Ho Chi Minh City for two to three hours. The students and their guests decide on the itinerary, giving visitors the opportunity to meet residents and see the city with them rather than tour guides. This allows the students to steer the visiting tourists away from the usual traps and towards the unseen side of the city.
The ‘Dine’ option presents a social occasion during which a group of tourists meets students to enjoy a dinner of Vietnamese cuisine, engage in conversation and exchange cultural information. ‘Cook’ calls on locals with in-depth experience in preparing Vietnamese dishes. Tourists visit their homes, shop for ingredients in the market and return to cook the meal.
The ‘Learn’ experience is a student-led presentation, in which they share their knowledge of the country and teach visitors about their culture in an interactive seminar. Some students include a basic introduction to the Vietnamese language in their discussion groups.
Keeping it informal and very interactive
How it helps: Connections Vietnam’s four cultural tourism options provide foreign visitors and locals the opportunity to interact to create a better cultural understanding between the host and the tourist. Ho Chi Minh City students benefit by having the chance to practice their language skills and earn money through part-time work.
Each of the tour programmes leaves a positive impact by building relationships between Vietnamese youth and overseas visitors, while giving holidaymakers and travellers a much greater insight into the real lifestyles of the Vietnamese. The ‘Learn’ service further provides students with the chance to use their presentation and social skills, which aids in their professional development.
The entire focus of Connections Vietnam is to provide tourists with a greater awareness of cultural, social and environmental issues in Ho Chi Minh City. The initiative is looking to expand to other Vietnamese cities in the near future.
Contact and booking information
Connections Vietnam
Jon Hoff
16/05 Chung Cu Mieu Noi
Ho Chi Minh City
Tel: (+84) [0] 90 444 6302
Fax: (+84) [0] 8 517 0053
E-mail: jon@connectionsvietnam.com
Web: www.connectionsvietnam.com
Map: Marker indicates Ho Chi Minh International Airport …
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Activity: BikeHike Adventures
Location: Hanoi and Northern Vietnam
Tip: Be in moderately good shape for biking the hills
Pedal, walk and paddle your way through northern Vietnam for a closer look at various ethnic groups.
Sea kayaking
The experience: BikeHike Adventures offers a 12-day multi-sport tour that explores the country’s north on mountain bikes, by foot and aboard sea kayaks. Vietnamese guides lead small groups of between two and 12 on a circuit that stops in Sapa, Bah Ha and Lao Cai. Extensions are available to Hoi An in the central region and farther south to take in the Mekong Delta. Tours can also be customised for families, honeymooners or private groups.
Mixing with the locals to provide a deeper cultural experience is a key element in BikeHike’s tours, and they achieve this through their choice of transportation. Rather than sit on a bus to get from A to B, participants take local transport and use muscle power whenever possible to leave the beaten track and get the opportunity to interact more with the people.
Most days are spent in the outdoors, biking and hiking towards the next destination. Accommodation runs a range from two homestays in hilltribe villages and camping out to a couple of overnight train rides in berths and rooms in tourist-quality hotels. Back in Hanoi, the tour continues by rickshaw, and visitors can enjoy a water puppet show and the city’s several museums and restaurants.
In small groups making friends is easy
How it helps: Canadian-based BikeHike has been flying the sustainable tourism banner for over a decade. It kicked off its Vietnam venture in 2004, when it joined with a Hanoi tour company that organises and operates the entire itinerary to ensure more of the revenue stays in the country.
BikeHike strives to respect the culture of the villages they visit by operating sensitive adventures that view local communities as partners. By keeping the group size less than 12 per trip, and generally around six to eight, travellers cause little disruption to the residents’ lifestyles, and leave a minimal ecological impact. The result: people on the tour gain a better appreciation of the environs.
Small groups also allow for greater flexibility and spontaneity. They make it easier to stop by a villager’s home, make impromptu visits to a village wedding, or peak inside rural schools.
BikeHike stands out as an alternative choice for its multi-sport tours or ‘self-propelled adventures’, so there is minimal time spent in carbon dioxide-emitting cars, buses and planes, thus reducing emissions that contribute to climate change.
Location and booking information
BikeHike Adventures
1807 Maritime Mews, Suite 200
Vancouver, BC, V6H 3W7, Canada
Tel: +001 (604) 731 2442
Fax: +001 (604) 677 5514
E-mail: info@bikehike.com
Web: www.bikehike.com
Map: Marker indicates Hanoi Airport not where the BikeHike Adventure is exactly …
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